Between Two Rivers

Between Two Rivers is an honest, funny and moving memoir of Baghdad life from the perspective of a young woman from England, transplanted into another culture by love and family. Dorothy is eighteen when she meets a dark, mysterious stranger at a dance in Portsmouth. Zane is a student from Iraq studying engineering. Almost before she realises, they are married, her husband has finished his course and Dorothy has a three month old daughter called Summer. They borrow a Mercedes from Zane's brother in Germany and begin the drive to Baghdad. Zane doesn't have a licence or insurance for the car and Dorothy doesn't have a visa for Iraq. Zane has only just told his family he is married. They arrive in Baghdad to live with his parents, sisters and brothers in a house in the suburbs. Zane has to find a job in a country where everything is changing. Dorothy has to learn Arabic and help entertain a stream of visitors, all eager to meet the imported new bride. She is soon pregnant again. Life in in the east is not going to be as she expected, letters take weeks to arrive from home and her mother is convinced she is never going to see her daughter again... The book follows twenty years of love, adjustment and adventure for Dorothy Al Khafaji.